Just saw a bogus roughing the passer call against Hasselbeck on a 3rd down so I decided to post this. I've been thinking about it for a while now so here goes.

Simply put, are we protecting the QB's too much and punishing defenders for just being physical?

After seeing the Kiwinuka-Young play, in which he said he didn't throw down Young for fear of a penalty (I believe that's how it went down anyways) it says to me that if defenders are now afraid to actually tackle a QB it's getting out of hand. I realize you have to protect your QB's, as they go down all the time and there just aren't that many elite QB's nowadays... but what do you guys think?

It's getting rediculous, the call on Cullen Jenkins tonight was a joke.

I've seen a ton of warrentless roughing the passer penaltys besides that too. Its like the NFL is trying to tell players to freeze time because I've seen plays where a QB is beginning to throw the ball and the DE leaps foward to get him, the ball gets released then the DE hits the QB less than a second later and gets flagged.

Some of them are legit. The problem isn't with the call, you shouldn't be allowed to lead with your helmet and hit an unprotected player in the head area. You need to protect QB's from getting concussions.

The problem is that for some reason there have been a lot of awful calls this year that aren't even within the boundaries of the ruling.

Ok, who voted for "The calls are legit"? The refs are making horrible calls. Like in the bears vs pats game. Peanut tillman blocked a guy after Daniel manning recovered a fumble and had not been touched yet. Also, when Daniel Manning tackled Corey Dillon as he was about to go out of bounds but he had not even touched the out of bounds mark. Dont even get me started on MOST of the roughing the passer calls.

yeah, i think sometimes people forget that the quarterback, during the throw, is just as unprotected as any WR going up for a ball or punt returner trying to field one. there clearly DO need to be some rules to protect him, just like there are for other players. that said, the enforcement has been awful lately.

to play devil's advocate: they HAVE to protect the quarterback much more forcefully, because these guys are the star players. for instance, a poorly called roughing the passer penalty on some defensive end is not nearly as bad for the league monetraily, as peyton manning having a career ending injury because of a questionable hit.

They need to relax on the roughing the passer calls, and take a look at hits on receivers. The pass to Stevens later in that drive, teh DB hit Stevens in the back of the head with his elbow and they didn't call it.

The call on the Hasselbeck hit was horrible, and I've seen that happen that multiple times this year, including Tatupu hitting Andrew Walter in the chest and he gets called for a blow to the head.

They need to relax on the roughing the passer calls, and take a look at hits on receivers. The pass to Stevens later in that drive, teh DB hit Stevens in the back of the head with his elbow and they didn't call it.

The call on the Hasselbeck hit was horrible, and I've seen that happen that multiple times this year, including Tatupu hitting Andrew Walter in the chest and he gets called for a blow to the head.

why does it matter your team won anyway.

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"The liberator who destroys my property, is fighting to save my spirit. The teacher who clears all possessions from my path will set me free."-Tyler Durden

They need to relax on the roughing the passer calls, and take a look at hits on receivers. The pass to Stevens later in that drive, teh DB hit Stevens in the back of the head with his elbow and they didn't call it.

The call on the Hasselbeck hit was horrible, and I've seen that happen that multiple times this year, including Tatupu hitting Andrew Walter in the chest and he gets called for a blow to the head.

why does it matter your team won anyway.

It doesn't matter. I wasn't making excuses I was just giving examples.

Phil Simms said that there needs to be two calls similar to facemasks. They should make a 5 yard and 15 yard roughing the passer penalty. 5 yards and not an automatic first down on plays where the roughing is ticky tacky. 15 yards is a huge penalty to take and to have all roughing the passer calls being 15 yards is a bit much.

The unnecessary roughness penalty against the Giants D on Vince Young Sunday was another example of QB's getting overly coddled. Young wasn't out of bounds and got hit shoulder to chest and absolutely decked just before he went out, and the Giants got flagged. It set up the tying TD on that drive. I'm an Eagles fan, and I hated that call.

This is football. You protect the stars to an extent, but everyone should be eligible to get hit. Players should be allowed to hit QB's in a reasonable manner without being flagged for roughing. It is getting ridiculous. I agree that the rule should be there, but I also agree that the enforcement has been way too sensitive this season.

My only complaint because of the lack of a call was the one against Ben Roethlisberger in atlanta. He Got Jacked and no flag... Then again, he wasn't cuddled like Gradkowski was from Smith. Brees was like WTF when the ref gave him a roughing the passer penalty against Aaron Smith.

A good example of this rule being ridiculous, was sundays game between the Giants and Texans. The defensive player from the Giants thought Young threw the ball and let up on the play. He figured if he tackled him he would get called for roughing the passer. Either way the guy got screwed, but you can't blame him for it. If he buries the guy on 4th and 10 he gets penalized for it and it's automatic first down. If he let's him go, well we all know what happened after that.